44 person Family Vacation at WDW at cabins- Advice?

[Homebirthy]

Hi all,
My family is planning a vacation June 2010 at WDW. We plan to stay at the cabins in Ft. Wilderness. We have 18 adults and 26 children attending. We are trying to figure out the best way to do this and save some money, too. My father, retired police officer, has 9 children- most have families. My mom died years ago, so this is a huge event for him to get us all together. Most of the family is in Maryland, I'm out here in NV. Anyone know of any sort of group discount or package available? We don't really want the magical gatherings sort of thing. We like to get together and be together the whole time. We are a close family- just brothers, sisters and their children playing at WDW like we did as kids. (We use to go camping at Ft. Wilderness, that's why staying at the cabins is our first choice.) Any suggestions would be great.

[edandcolleen1995]

Well with 44 people, going to be hard to come up with anything "cheap".

Couple of things though.

Even if you pick the cabins, you have a good chance of being spread out. It would be rare to have a whole loop just for your family, but you never know. But not a huge deal because you can all meet at a couple of the cabins to bbq and whatnot on the decks.

There are some great RV rentals also over on the camping boards here at Disboards. The local companies drop off a fully loaded (ie linen, cooking stuff, etc etc) for about $150 a night at whatever campsite you are given. So you pay Disney for a campsite and this company drops off the RV for the week you are there. Couple of these would really allow your family to spread out (add a tent at each site) vs the cabins. It won't be cheaper then a cabin though.

One downside is if at Fort Wilderness there will be a need for a few (or more) golf carts. Do NOT rent from Disney because it is way overpriced. Again, local companies in Florida will drop off a cart you can use for the week. It is much cheaper that way.

If you stay at value other resorts, it will be much harder to hang out as a group there. You can do it at the pools and stuff, but not really fesiable in the rooms.

Good luck! That is a ton of folks but sounds like a blast.

[Homebirthy]

Wow! That's terrific! How do I find the companies that rent the RVs and golf carts?

Thanks so much!

[mom2cookies]

Well I wouldn't have any other suggestions that would be better then the previous poster. I would definitely suggest some separate individual family times. I come from a very close large family also, and as much as we get along and love each other, separate family time is a must.
But I am wondering how you all are planning this, I mean who is doing the arrangements etc. Two years ago i did a trip for 21 people and I did basically are the planning. I loved it but for 44 people I would definitely have to delegate LOL. ( I volunteers for the ' job' because I had the experience)

[IMGONNABE40!]

I know you said "We don't really want the magical gatherings sort of thing." However, I think you should give them a call. I think this will be the only way to guarantee that all of your cabins will be next to each other. I think they would be able to facilitate dining arrangements so you can all eat out together if that interests. Whether you want to do any other grand gathering events is totally up to you.

I booked a grand gathering for 11 people. We had 3 rooms. Since we were a GG the rooms were assigned next to each other. We decided to do the GG safari event. Other than that, there was nothing to say we were a GG.

[IMGONNABE40!]

Oh, for more info on the golf carts, and lots of info on the cabins and Fort Wilderness, go over to the camping board. We stayed in a cabin back in July and loved it. The camping board was a huge help in planning that trip.

[marcielm]

You might consider using a Disney Specialist TA to help you plan this trip. They will definitely be able to help you keep an eye out for the best deals for your party's situation.

Also, Disney's has group rates for 10 rooms or more... sometimes this can be a cheaper deal than offers Disney gives to the general public, sometimes it isn't. These 10 rooms do not have to all be at the same resort, for the same length of stay. You just have to have ONE NIGHT that is overlapped with 10 rooms occupied. This might also be a way that a TA can help you. Even if you only need 8 cabins, they might be able to fill 2 additional rooms at another resort covering one day from your trip to get everyone in on the group rate.

Even if you don't do any of the 'magical extras', Disney will still consider your group a GG... and it can help you get rooms in close proximity to one another.

[Swank]

If you are not set on staying on property then you might consiser renting two or three large villas nearby. You would save a ton of money, and with you sharing the expenses you could get great accomodations with priviate pools, saunas, gamerooms, home theaters and such. But of course the trade off would be you would need to rent a bus for transportation to and from the parks, but I bet you would save thousands of dollars staying off site. Just something to consider.

[Metro West]

[Homebirthy]

Thanks so much everyone! Great advice!

What a great board here!

[momma2minnie]

Have a super great time! how nice for your dad to have all of you together. My eyes are misty!

[kwitcherkicken99]

Take LOTS of advil... =)

[TSWJan78]

You have come to the right place. I would check with Dreams Unlimited (the Travel Agent who hosts these boards) They are amazing and I am sure they will be able to offer some help. We are looking to go with 50+ people in 2012 and they will be the first email i send.

I agree with the poster who says prepare to spend some time not as a group. We went with 9 people last summer and with stopping for bathrooms, taking photos and running to grab a drink we quickly realized that waiting for everyone to be ready to go was not going to work. Maybe you are all in the same park each day and you all grab fast passes for around the same time so you all meet say at Test track at 1:00 and do a group ride or Photo on Main street at 5:00.

Spend some time on these boards.. camping board, Families board and resort boards and you will be fine. WELCOME!!